


For a Lesser Evil

by simplesetgo



Category: Legend of the Seeker
Genre: Angst, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-22
Updated: 2010-09-22
Packaged: 2017-10-18 12:47:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/189049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simplesetgo/pseuds/simplesetgo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It doesn't look like they can win this time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For a Lesser Evil

Darkness had settled on the world, and the resulting bright moonlight couldn’t pierce the shadow that had fallen on the small party’s mood. Tomorrow, at first light, they would walk into a trap with no way out. They didn’t have a choice—Rahl had arranged the pieces of his plan carefully, and after a whole day spent in thought, not even the Wizard could come up with an alternative.

There was a very real possibility that they would die. It was likely, even.

Richard stared at their small and pitiful fire, and Zedd at the darkness between the trees. Kahlan knew they were both still searching for answers. One more possibility, that elusive “other way” Richard had insisted upon. Cara feigned sleep—she could tell from her breathing.

Kahlan stepped over the Mord-Sith’s still form and stole quietly into the trees. She wasn’t sure why, she just needed to get away.

She leaned her back against a tree and closed her eyes, pressing the back of her head into the rough bark. There was nothing like the prospect of death to clarify previously muddled emotions. Kahlan simply hadn’t had this much time to think about things before. It had always been a flash of fear or panic as she realized her chest was exposed to a loaded crossbow, or as she heard a sword slicing the air next to her ear.

Kahlan started at a branch snapping behind her, and sighed loudly. “Richard, now is not the time to go around scaring people.”

“It’s me,” came the quiet answer.

She turned her head and saw Cara standing awkwardly five paces away, arms hanging at her sides. “Oh,” Kahlan said softly. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright. Are you angry with Richard?” Cara asked, moving closer.

“I just wish he had listened. This is the greater evil that I warned him of. What could have been avoided. The world is going to lose the only living Wizard of the First Order, the Mother Confessor, the Seeker of Truth, and… you, Cara! All because Richard didn’t want to get his hands dirty. I don’t know what I ever saw in him, how I ever thought—”

Kahlan stopped herself, blinking, taken aback at the sudden anger in her outburst. “Forgive me,” she whispered weakly. “I’m not myself.”

“It’s alright,” Cara said again. She glanced behind her. “Should I go?”

“No, don’t," Kahlan answered quickly. “Please. I don’t mind your company.”

Cara nodded and moved to a tree next to Kahlan’s, resting her back lightly against it. She didn’t say anything, and she didn’t have to. Kahlan let time pass and she calmed herself, using Cara’s presence as an anchor.

“Cara,” she said suddenly. “Do you have any regrets? Anything you wanted to do before you die? One last wish.”

Cara didn’t answer at first, and Kahlan was just becoming sure that she was going to ignore her question when the Mord-Sith spoke. “I have many regrets. But I only have one last wish.”

Kahlan waited, and when Cara had seemingly fallen back into silence she pushed off from her tree and stepped in front of her. “What is it?” she asked softly. “Your wish.”

“I was trying to decide whether to lie,” Cara answered, her voice equally soft. “I could, you know, and you wouldn’t know. But I won’t.” She raised her head, and Kahlan watched as Cara’s eyes opened up before her and let her in. “You made me feel something, a long time ago. That night, in the inn.” She paused, taking a breath. “I want to feel it again,” she blurted.

Kahlan let her hand travel up from her side, and she touched Cara’s face. Cara wasn’t the only one who had felt something new that night. Her fingers grazed Cara’s cheek, traveling down to raise her chin, and Kahlan bit her lip at the naked hope she saw in Cara’s eyes. To see hope, from Cara, at a time like this…

Cara pushed forward suddenly, and Kahlan met her mouth with her own in a crushing kiss. The taste of Cara, so strangely familiar, brought back all the accompanying emotions born months ago and buried soon after. She kissed Cara over and over; Kahlan felt hands slip behind her neck and under her arm, and she let herself be pulled closer, remembering the way their bodies had fit together that night.

But the memories hurt, and the slow burning pain she had felt as she buried her feelings for Cara came back flaring and sharp, and amplified by the passage of time. Kahlan felt her eyes well with hot and sudden tears, and she broke the kiss and pulled away as her face contorted and her eyes squeezed shut. “Cara,” she whispered. She had to whisper, there was no way her voice could get past the tightness in her throat. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have pretended it never happened. I shouldn’t have made you ask me for this.”

“Don’t,” Cara said firmly. “Don’t do that.”

Kahlan let herself fall forward, back into Cara’s arms, and she buried her head in Cara’s hair and shoulder. “I want you,” she murmured. “So badly, Cara, in every way there is to want. And it’s too late. I waited too long to realize it.”

The hand stroking Kahlan’s back froze, and Kahlan tried to hold her breath as Cara’s shoulder grew wet under her.

“You want me?” Cara asked softly.

Kahlan sniffed against her, and could only nod in answer. Cara pushed her away to hold her at arm’s length, and Kahlan blinked away tears to see Cara’s eyes wet with her own. “I do,” Kahlan confirmed, finally able to force her voice from her throat.

“Oh,” Cara whispered. It was all she seemed able to say, and Kahlan took the opportunity to press another kiss to her mouth, somehow even more desperate and slow. Cara melted against her, and Kahlan pressed her tongue forward, the way Cara had showed her, and was rewarded with the tightening of Cara’s hands on her body.

Cara pulled away suddenly and Kahlan blushed, but Cara just swallowed and searched her eyes. “I want you too.”

“I know,” Kahlan replied breathlessly. She blinked; not the best response to give such to such a confession from Cara. But the blonde just offered her a broken smile, and when their mouths met again a heartbeat later it was Cara’s tongue showing her it was alright. That they could have each other a second time, one last time, and somehow that made everything seem alright.

Cara pulled back again, and Kahlan pressed forward at the loss of her. “What about yours?” Cara whispered. “Your wish.”

“I didn’t have one,” Kahlan whispered back. She reached her hand to brush tears away from Cara’s face, and watched as Cara’s eyes closed at her touch. “But I do now.”


End file.
